For at
least the last three decades, conservative Christians (known
collectively as the Religious Right), have allowed themselves to become
wedded to Republican politicians. They have done this to the detriment
of the very principles they seek to advance.

Obviously,
there is nothing wrong with preachers and Christians supporting those
political figures that are willing to faithfully discharge their duties
to protect and defend the Constitution and historic American
principles. However, instead of faithfully championing constitutional
principles, conservative Christians (as a whole) have become little
more than political pawns for Republican politicos.

Perhaps
conservative Christians have forgotten (or never learned) the sage
advice of President Theodore Roosevelt (a Republican), who said,
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by
the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree
in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support
him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not
to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he
fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is
unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or
anyone else."

Instead
of standing by the country (meaning our country's constitution and
historic principles) Christians and ministers have chosen to stand by
the politician-no matter what. However, what most Christians and
ministers have yet to learn is that politicians do not share the same
spirit of loyalty, either to our principles or to us.

A prime
example of the way politicians use and then discard ministers for their
own purposes can be seen in the life of one minister, the Rev. O'Neal
Dozier of Pompano Beach, Florida.

First,
a little background: Rev. Dozier is a former NFL football player (who
played for the Chicago Bears and New York Jets). He served two terms in
the U.S. Army. He is a former bodybuilding champion and football coach.
He earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence (Law) degree and was a Professor of
Law. O'Neal Dozier is also a licensed minister of the Gospel and is the
founder and pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach,
Florida.

Governor
Jeb Bush appointed Rev. Dozier to the 17th Judicial Circuit Judicial
Nominating Commission. Bush also appointed Dozier to the Board of
Directors of One Church, One Child of Florida, Inc., which is an
adoption program. In January of 2005, Rev. Dozier received an
invitation to attend a private meeting with President George W. Bush,
Condoleezza Rice, and 23 other African-American leaders. Rev. Dozier
received a second invitation to meet with President Bush in July of
that same year. In addition, Republican gubernatorial nominee Charlie
Crist asked Rev. Dozier to sit on his "Strengthening Florida's
Families" advisory panel.

As one
can easily see, O'Neal Dozier has an established record as a friend and
supporter of Republican candidates and causes.

Guess
what?

Just
this past week, Rev. Dozier was booted off Crist's advisory council and
removed from Governor Bush's Judicial Nominating Commission. What was
the egregious sin that cost Dozier the favor of these top Republicans?
Rev. Dozier dared to voice his opposition to Islam. Specifically,
Pastor Dozier distributed a Gospel tract published by Chick
Publications of California, which points out the fallacies and
potential dangers of the Muslim religion.

Defending
his actions, Rev. Dozier said, "I'm just simply doing what I think any
true pastor would do."

Regarding
the fact that both Bush and Crist gave him the boot, Pastor Dozier
said, "I am really hurt about it. There's no place for those who want
to do the work of God in politics. Politicians want you to support
them, but they are not going to support you."

Pastor
Dozier learned a valuable lesson the hard way. This is a lesson all
conservative Christians and pastors need to learn: for the most part,
Republican bigwigs use the Religious Right for their own purposes, then
dump them for the same reasons.

It is a
truism that most politicians demonstrate little commitment to
conservative principles. The only principle to which they are truly
committed is the principle of trying to win elections!

Because
Rev. Dozier refused to compromise his convictions and bow the knee to
political correctness, he was swiftly sacked. However, more pastors
need to heed his example.

If the
leaders of the Religious Right (especially at the national level) would
be willing to stand firm and uncompromising for our principles, if they
would be willing to risk their seat at the king's table for a
principle, perhaps our nation's politicians would come to honestly
respect our principles (or at least fear the fallout). More
importantly, they might even come to respect us.

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As it
is, politicians know that they can use their conservative toadies to
further their own personal agendas-agendas that do not remotely reflect
the desired goals of the Christians who allow themselves to be used.

Obviously,
Pastor O'Neal Dozier is not any politician's toady. He appears to be
what all of us who call ourselves pastors are supposed to be: God's
man. We need more like him.

Chuck Baldwin is
Founder-Pastor of
Crossroads Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. In 1985 the church was
recognized by President Ronald Reagan for its unusual growth and
influence.

Dr. Baldwin is the host of a lively,
hard-hitting syndicated radio talk show on the Genesis Communications
Network called, "Chuck Baldwin Live" This is a daily, one hour long
call-in show in which Dr. Baldwin addresses current event topics from a
conservative Christian point of view. Pastor Baldwin writes weekly
articles on the internet http://www.ChuckBaldwinLive.com and
newspapers.

To learn more about his radio talk
show please visit his web site at: www.chuckbaldwinlive.com.
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